Why Customer Engagement Platforms Are Vital in the Experience Economy: Twilio Completes Segment Acquisition

Peter Reinhardt to remain CEO of Segment, will report to Jeff Lawson

Twilio yesterday announced the completion of its acquisition of Segment, the customer data platform (CDP). The transaction value is pegged at nearly $3.2 billion in Twilio Class A common stock.

Segment will now become a division of Twilio and will continue to be led by CEO Peter Reinhardt, reporting to Jeff Lawson, co-founder, and CEO of Twilio.

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“Nearly every company is focused on acquiring, retaining and growing their customer relationships through digital engagement,” said Lawson. “However, the biggest impediment to great digital engagement are the data silos that prevent companies from truly understanding their customers. With the addition of Segment, Twilio’s Customer Engagement Platform now enables companies to both understand their customer and engage with them digitally — the combination is key to building great digital experiences.”

The acquisition will enable developers and Twilio customers to gain deeper insights into how customers behave across channels to build a single, unified view of the customer. It will also help marketers break down silos to help businesses make their customer engagement more personalized, timely, and impactful across channels.

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In addition to the above, marketers will also be able to access Twilio’s cloud communications platform more effectively to manage customer communication across key channels such as text messages, instant messaging (IM), voice, video, email, IoT, and more. A flexible API allows developers to connect sources of customer data, such as web or mobile apps, with data analytics tools, without having to write new code.

The combined capabilities of Twilio and Segment will also help marketers funnel a steady supply of high-quality, high-velocity first-party data that easily integrates into existing systems. Furthermore, Twilio will also act as a single platform for different business functions within the organizations such as marketing, customer support, and product development to deliver data-driven insights tailored to individual needs.

“Exceptional customer engagement requires not only high-quality data, but the infrastructure to activate those insights across every channel and customer interaction,” said Peter Reinhardt, co-founder, and CEO of Segment. “By bringing Twilio and Segment together, we will help businesses build a foundation of actionable insights critical to engaging with customers based on their needs and preferences to deliver a positive, seamless and effective customer experience.”

Why Twilio Is Doubling Down on Customer Engagement

The experience economy is here, and data silos keep marketers from delivering delightful customer experiences. Segment’s acquisition allows Twilio to offer marketers a more holistic engagement outlook because successful businesses know their customers well and leverage data to provide more relevant interactions.

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However, collecting these insights is easier said than done as the data is spread across disparate systems and business functions within an organization. Segment’s acquisition allows Twilio to solve this problem and help marketers understand their customers better.

In addition to bolstering its technological capabilities, Twilio is also eyeing the lucrative $79 billion addressable market – positioning its strongly as a leading customer engagement platformOpens a new window .  The company has also booked a surprise profit amid rising demand since the pandemic began. The completion of Segment’s acquisition only helps Twilio accelerate its growth as we head into 2021.